


luna

by manbun_zukka



Series: with the tides [1]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: :((((, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, And then this happened, Angst, Emotional Hurt, F/M, Fluff, a bit of, and sokka is sad :(((((, but a lot of, but without the comfort, i was listening to clair de lune, it's yue, like hurt comfort, listen yall, sad boy sokka hours, she's sick :(((((
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-18
Updated: 2020-09-18
Packaged: 2021-03-08 03:15:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,173
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26528836
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/manbun_zukka/pseuds/manbun_zukka
Summary: “I got Arctic Fox, you said they’re the best, right?” Sokka asks in place of a greeting as he walks into Yue’s room. She’s sitting on her bed with her knees pulled to her chest, and she smiles gently at him, her eyes puffy and red.“Yeah,” she says. “It’s the best. You got enough for dark hair, right?”“I dunno, is seven bottles enough?” Sokka jokes, dumping the bag out onto her carpet. She laughs, and it sounds painful, but Sokka doesn’t mention that, he just laughs along with her.___it was never supposed to be like this.
Relationships: Sokka/Yue (Avatar)
Series: with the tides [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1929022
Comments: 12
Kudos: 49





	luna

**Author's Note:**

> hi there. right now, i'm in my lunch break for virtual school, and i just wrote this all in one sitting while sobbing my eyes out. i'm sorry. listening to clair de lune while reading this really adds to the experience, I promise.
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNcsUNKlAKw
> 
> just coppy paste that link for the song.
> 
> I hope you don't cry as much as I did.
> 
> xx,  
> CJ

Yue is only sixteen when she gets sick.

_ It was never supposed to happen like this _ , Sokka thinks as he stares down at his phone, willing and wishing for the text message to just disappear.

It doesn’t.

It just stares back at him all the same, the same words blinking up at him in the late afternoon light.

_ It’s not migraines,  _ the text reads.  _ I have cancer. Stage four leukemia that’s already spread to my lungs. I don’t have much time left. _

Sokka cries, of course he does, but he doesn’t say anything to his father as he walks straight past the dinner table where Hakoda, Bato, and Katara are sitting, and out the door. He follows Yue’s instructions to a tee, going first to the pharmacy to pick up the things that she needs, and then going over to her small rowhouse, and parking outside. He takes a few deep breaths, reminding himself to be strong.

“I got Arctic Fox, you said they’re the best, right?” he asks in place of a greeting as he walks into Yue’s room. She’s sitting on her bed with her knees pulled to her chest, and she smiles gently at him, her eyes puffy and red.

“Yeah,” she says. “It’s the best. You got enough for dark hair, right?”

“I dunno, is seven bottles enough?” Sokka jokes, dumping the bag out onto her carpet. She laughs, and it sounds painful, but Sokka doesn’t mention that, he just laughs along with her. 

They sit in her bathroom, talking quietly while Yue’s favorite song plays on repeat in the background, filling the air with gentle piano.  _ Clair de Lune  _ was her mother’s favorite, and it’s her’s now.

Sokka is gentle as he brushes the  _ Icy White  _ hair dye into her dark strands, carefully avoiding her ears and forehead. Yue tells him all about what she wants to do with the time that she has left, and Sokka promises her that he’ll do everything with her. He’s going to do this with her, no matter what.

When Sokka got there, it was already seven, so by the time that they finish the last round of toner, it’s nearly midnight and Yue’s hair is silver.

“It’s perfect, Socks,” she whispers in awe, looking at herself in the mirror and then back up at him. Sokka glances down at the pile of still unused bottles of bleach, color, and toner, and grins.

“How do you feel about pulling an all nighter?”

“Hell yeah.”

This time, it’s Sokka’s turn to sit on the worn-out stool that Yue uses as a desk chair, turned away from the mirror so that he doesn’t see his reflection until it’s time for the big reveal. Yue is just as gentle as he was, and his hair is a much lighter shade of brown, so they finish in about half the time that it took them to do Yue’s hair. 

“Can I bleach your eyebrows?” Yue asks at three in the morning. Sokka just nods, and turns up the music.

By four, both of them are thoroughly tired, but they both have silver hair and Sokka has silver eyebrows, and there are two items crossed off of Yue’s bucket list. They fall asleep curled up together in Yue’s bed, plastic bags still hanging around Sokka’s shoulders.

When Sokka comes home the next morning, Hakoda doesn’t question his new icy hair and eyebrows, and instead simply passes him a mug of coffee and says nothing. Sokka is silently grateful for his father.

Sokka stops going to school when getting up the stairs becomes tiring for Yue. His teachers don’t question it, and neither do his family and friends, they simply let him, because they know that Yue’s loss will land harder on Sokka then it will on anyone else.

Sokka sits with Yue all day, in the living room of her small house, and they paint each other’s nails and listen to  _ Clair de Lune  _ all day. Yue’s hair shines in the moonlight whenever Sokka stays over, and he can only hope that she passes at night, because he wants the moon to help her make her journey to wherever she’s going next.

Three months after her diagnosis, Yue asks Sokka to take her to the beach. Sokka can see it in her eyes, in the way that she’s been getting more energy these days; the trip to the beach isn’t just a trip to the beach, no, it’s her last hurrah. Sokka wants it to be perfect.

It  _ is _ perfect.

They go to the beach that Yue’s mother used to take her to when she was a child, and it’s just the two of them, Sokka and Yue, together with the waves. Neither of them go in the ocean, but Sokka brings an old quilt and he lays it out and both of them sit there, quietly, while  _ Clair de Lune _ plays from Yue’s wireless speaker. They hardly say anything that day, but everything has always managed to go unsaid between the two of them, anyways.

Her last day comes not two weeks after that. It’s beautiful, and it’s perfect, and Sokka and Yue spend all of their time together that day, holding hands out on Yue’s back porch. It’s getting warmer, close to February, but it’s still just chilly enough for a light dusting of snow to fall that day, and they sit together and watch it, their matching heads of icy blonde hair glinting in the dull sunlight.

It’s a full moon that night, and Yue wants nothing more than for Sokka to carry her up the stairs and to her attic bedroom, so that they can watch the stars together one last time. The last part of that sentence goes unsaid between them, just like most other things, but Sokka has never been able to say no to Yue.

So he carries her up the stairs, and he wraps her up in the sweatshirt that she always steals from him, and they sit together on her bed, just like that first night, with  _ Clair de Lune  _ playing gently in the background.

Quietly, Sokka points out the stars with the arm that’s not wrapped around Yue, telling her in a quiet voice about all of the different constellations and their origin stories that come from the ancient myths. He’s told her about these a thousand times, he’s sure of it, but that doesn’t matter. He’ll tell her again, a thousand times.

As the night gets darker, and Yue’s breaths get slower, Sokka’s voice gets quieter, just like the music. 

“Sokka,” Yue whispers. “Take me to the ocean again, okay? That way the moon can take me with her when she pulls the tides.”

“Okay,” Sokka breaths, pressing a light kiss to her hair. “I promise.”

Yue exhales for the last time just as the last note of  _ Clair de Lune  _ floats away, and Sokka presses another gentle kiss to her hair, smiling. “I’ll take you to the ocean, Yue.” he tells her. “I love you.”

**Author's Note:**

> hey yall. are you crying? cause i'm crying. 
> 
> i'm sorry.
> 
> xx,  
> CJ
> 
> (ps, i might make this into a little oneshot series where modern au sokka deals with his trauma, so look out for that! there will be zukka, folks.)


End file.
